The Chance of a Lifetime
USMNT starting 11 against ran at the 2022 FIFA World Cup
An opportunity that every soccer playing kid dreams about. The highest praise in world soccer. The pressure is higher than ever before, the chance of a lifetime.
The World Cup is the most prestigious sporting event in the history of the world (aside from maybe the Olympics), and to represent your country on the world stage is even more pressuring. Although it’s a privilege and an honor to represent your country at the World Cup, it can be very overwhelming for players and staff. The 2022 World Cup was a success and a failure at the same time for the US, it proved to the fans that we can compete at a World Cup, but also told us that we’re not going to be contenders any time soon. The 2026 World Cup is an opportunity for the USMNT, an opportunity to prove that we can be amongst the “Big Dogs” in the soccer world.
In recent times, the USMNT has been less than impressive, failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia was one of the biggest blunders US Soccer has had in quite a long time. Soccer has never been a super prominent sport in the United States, until now. More and more kids are starting to play soccer and youth competitions, leagues and organizations are growing. Soccer is becoming a much bigger sport, and my hope is that by 2026 we will have enough youth flow and senior players that US Soccer will be able to contend at the 26 World Cup. Overall, the 2022 edition was a masterpiece, ending in Lionel Messi capping off his wondrous career by winning the most prestigious trophy in world football.
When Qatar won the bid for the 2022 World Cup years ago, everyone was skeptical. And many thought that Qatar winning the bid just shows that FIFA is a big money scam. However, the 2022 World Cup may very well have been the best World Cup in history. It had beautiful stadiums, the most technologically advanced World Cup to date, and most importantly, many teams that work together and play beautiful football.
My hope is this, I hope that the USMNT will have a chance to win at the 2026 World Cup, however things have to change before there will even be a chance. First and probably most important, manager Gregg Berhalter needs to go. The Copa America this summer will be his last chance. Berhalter has not had the best tenure as manager of the USMNT, he’s been involved with a scandal, told players that they won’t play due to off the field problems and failed to advance past the Round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup.
Copa America will be a big test, with the likes of Neymar and Brazil, Messi and Argentina as well as Chicharito and Mexico coming to town, it won’t be a breeze. If the US doesn’t make it to at least the Semi-Finals of the Copa America, Berhalter has to go before the 2026 World Cup. Every USMNT fan wants to see their team succeed, and frankly, that won’t happen under Berhalter. His style of football doesn’t nearly fit the type of players this “golden generation” of the USMNT contains. With the likes of Weston McKennie, Gio Reyna, Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic, Berhalter needs to play a more flowing type of soccer, less playing long and over the top, more building out of the back and working it up top.
Not only does the USMNT need to change the type of soccer that they’re playing, they need to change who they’re playing. The USMNT has a big test this summer and hasn’t really played anyone to show for it. With a friendly against Slovenia in January, a friendly with Colombia coming up in June as well as a CONCACAF Nations League second leg tie with Jamaica in March, the USMNT doesn’t have a huge test before Copa America. Colombia is a good squad however the golden age of James Rodriguez, Juan Cuadrado and Radamel Falcao has ended. Slovenia on the other hand doesn’t really have many stand out players, and still managed to prevail over the USMNT 1-0, another rather concerning result with such a big tournament coming up.
I would love to see the USMNT play one of soccer’s bigger countries, such as Spain, Brazil or even France before Copa America in the summer. Do I see the USMNT winning these games? No, but I do think these games would be a good test for the Americans before a big tournament.
At the end of it all, the US has never been a big soccer country, and really until now younger generations haven’t grown up playing soccer. Point being, the “golden generation” for the USMNT may be now, but bigger things are to come for the US and soccer.